The symbolic visions in the book of Revelation challenge readers to resist worldly compromise, spiritual complacency, and false teaching.^[1] They also reassure struggling saints to hold fast to the testimony of Jesus and maintain hope that the sovereign God will finally save his people, judge his foes, and consummate his kingdom through the reigning and returning Lord. These visions offer a divine perspective on what is true, valuable, and lasting. They expose the ungodly nature of the world’s political, cultural, economic, and religious systems destined for destruction, and they reorient the worldviews and values of God’s people around God’s eternal kingdom.^[2]

Revelation’s portrayal of “the prayers of the saints” is one subtle yet significant way that the book encourages embattled believers to press on in confident hope. The Apocalypse explicitly mentions “the prayers of the saints” only three times (5:8; 8:3–4). However, these petitions—along with the martyrs’ cries for vindication in 6:10—play a crucial role in the book’s unfolding drama of new exodus salvation and judgment. This essay seeks to explore the OT background, structural importance, and theological significance of petitionary prayer in the book of Revelation.

1. The Saints’ Prayers as Incense (5:8)

The first clear mention of prayer in the Apocalypse comes in 5:8, where John describes the four living creatures and twenty-four elders falling down before the Lamb who is found worthy to take the sealed scroll. Each of these heavenly worshipers holds “a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (αἱ προσευχαὶ τῶν ἁγίων).^[3] The harp (κιθάρα) frequently accompanies praise and thanksgiving to God in the OT.^[4] Elsewhere in Revelation, the redeemed hold harps as they sing “a new song” and “the song of Moses … the song of the Lamb” (14:2–3; 15:2–3), bringing together the two great saving events in redemptive history: the exodus from Egypt and the cross of Christ.^[5] The golden bowls in their hands contain incense (θυμιάματα), which John identifies as the prayers of God’s people.^[6]

Incense was a staple of Jewish worship in the tabernacle and the temple throughout biblical history (Exod 30:1–10; 1 Chr 6:34; 28:18; Luke 1:9–10). The altar of incense (θυσιαστήριον θυμιάματος) stood before the veil separating the holy place from the most holy place, where the Lord promised to meet with his people (Exod 30:1, 6). The high priest burned a regular incense offering every morning and evening (30:7–8), the same times prescribed for the daily burnt offerings on the altar at the entrance of the tent of meeting (29:38–42).^[7]

The symbolic depiction of prayers as incense in Rev 5:8 reflects the close association of prayer with sacrifice and offerings in Ps 141:2 (140:2 LXX): “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!”^[8] Some interpreters posit that the psalmist envisions his prayer replacing the formal temple offerings,^[9] while others reason that prayer regularly accompanies sacrifices and offerings.^[10] More likely, the psalmist here presents his prayer as analogous to those offerings as pleasing acts of worship and devotion to the Lord.^[11] The Greek translators of the psalm express this comparison with the conjunction ὡς: “Let my prayer succeed as incense [ὡς θυμίαμα] before you” (NETS). The sweet smell and ascending smoke from burning incense in the tabernacle or temple offer a vivid picture of pious petitions entering into God’s glorious presence.

Revelation 5:8 draws upon this symbolic association of incense and prayer in the OT and Jewish literature, but John goes further by presenting heavenly beings bringing the saints’ sweet-smelling prayers directly into the heavenly throne room. The OT priests regularly offered incense “before the Lord” (ἔναντι κυρίου) in the tent of meeting (Exod 30:8 LXX). However, the Apocalypse strikingly presents those holding the bowls of incense prostrating themselves “before the Lamb” (ἐνώπιον τοῦ ἀρνίου) after he is revealed as the one worthy to open the Almighty’s sealed scroll. Moreover, they extol the Lamb as “worthy” using the same language of worship offered to the Creator God in 4:11 (ἄξιος εἶ, 5:9; cf. 5:12). These parallels signal that “Christ is being adored on absolutely equal terms with God the creator!”^[12]

The depiction of the saints’ prayers as golden bowls of incense contributes to Revelation’s perspective on petitionary prayer in at least three ways. First, this reassures God’s people that their prayers are acceptable to God and effective in his cosmic purposes. The twenty-four elders hold these golden bowls in the heavenly throne room in the presence of the Almighty and the Lamb. “This picture brings assurance to the church that a powerful angelic ministry is operating in heaven on their behalf, even though the church is still suffering on earth.”^[13]

Second, John introduces the golden bowls of incense-prayers at the pivotal point when the Lamb takes the sealed scroll from the Almighty and heaven erupts with praise and expectation. The heavenly scroll in Rev 5:1, modeled after the double-sided scroll in Ezek 2:9–10, contains God’s eschatological plan of judgment and salvation.^[14] The seals indicate that its contents are secret and inscrutable until Jesus, the worthy seal-breaker, discloses and executes them.^[15] The context in which John introduces “the prayers of the saints” (5:8) suggests that these petitions concern “the progress of the gospel on earth” and “focus on God’s work on earth in salvation and judgment.”^[16] The mention of these prayers in the heavenly drama of Rev 5 serves “to prepare the way for their role in the coming of God’s kingdom on earth.”^[17]

Third, the dramatic heavenly scene in Rev 5 depicts Jesus the Lamb rightfully receiving the prayers and praise of God’s people. This reinforces the book’s presentation of Jesus sharing fully in the identity, authority, prerogatives, and activity of the one true God.

2. The Martyrs’ Cries for Vindication (6:9–11)

The next prayer scene in the Apocalypse comes in 6:9–11. When the Lamb opens the scroll’s fifth seal, John sees under the altar the souls of martyrs who cry out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (6:9–10).^[18] Interpreters debate whether the “altar” here refers to the altar of burnt offering, the altar of incense, or a fusion of the two. The sacrificial connotations of “blood” and the location “under the altar” relate most closely to the OT description of the altar of burnt offering, where the priest poured out the blood of sacrificial victims at the altar’s base (Lev. 4:18, 30, 34).^[19] Alternatively, Beale identifies the altar in 6:9 with the golden altar of incense situated near the most holy place, since the book elsewhere refers to the altar of incense in 8:3–5 and 9:13.^[20] He reasons that “the imagery of the altar brings to mind the ideas of both sacrifice and prayers, as incense, asking God to vindicate those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”^[21] More likely, the Apocalypse consistently refers to a singular “altar” for sacrifice and prayer in the heavenly sanctuary, which combines the functions and imagery of the two altars in Israel’s tabernacle and temples.^[22] John’s reference to the souls under the altar as “slain” (σφάζω) recalls the repeated depiction of the “slain” Lamb (5:6, 9, 12), which may imply “a kind of participation in the shed blood of the Lamb”^[23] or may signal that Christ’s followers “will have their sacrificial suffering and apparent defeat turned into ultimate victory.”^[24]

John Paul Heil asserts that the martyrs’ cries set “the agenda for the remainder of the book.”^[25] They do not seek personal payback but call for God to reveal his righteous justice on a cosmic scale,^[26] for “the Judge of all the earth [to] do what is just” (Gen 18:25). Their question “how long?” (ἕως πότε) resonates with OT appeals such as Ps 12:1–3 LXX (13:1–3 MT):

How long, O Lord [Ἕως πότε, κύριε], will you totally forget me?
How long [Ἕως πότε] will you turn your face from me?
How long [Ἕως πότε] shall my enemy be exalted over me?^[27]

In particular, the martyrs’ question, “How long?” and their appeal for God to “avenge our blood” in Rev 6:10 likely allude to Ps 78 LXX (79 MT).^[28] Asaph’s psalm of lament begins by recounting how the nations have entered God’s inheritance, defiled his sanctuary, and poured out the blood of his people like water (vv. 1–4). The psalm then includes a series of petitions for God to rescue his people and pour out wrath on the nations that have brought reproach and shame upon them (vv. 5–12).^[29] The martyrs’ query (ἕως πότε) and their call for vindication (οὐ κρίνεις καὶ ἐκδικεῖς τὸ αἷμα ἡμῶν) closely parallel Ps 78:5, 10 LXX:

How long, O Lord [ἕως πότε, κύριε], will you be utterly angry, will your jealousy burn like fire?

Let the avenging of the outpoured blood [ἡ ἐκδίκησις τοῦ αἵματος] of your slaves be known among the nations before our eyes. (NETS)

In Rev 6 and Ps 78 LXX, the question “How long?” highlights the present sufferings and disgrace experienced by God’s people and asks when God will intervene to reverse their situation and bring justice and deliverance. The psalmist appeals to God’s compassion for his people (v. 8), the glory of his name (v. 9), and the greatness of his arm (v. 11) vowing to recount God’s praise (v. 13) even while waiting for him to act. In contrast, Revelation records God’s initial and ultimate response to his people’s question, “How long?”

The Almighty hears the martyrs’ urgent petitions and responds initially by giving them each a white robe and instructing them to “rest a little while” (Rev 6:11). God covers their shame and comforts his slain saints by inviting them to experience blissful rest in heaven (cf. 14:13). The white robes are not the martyrs’ glorified resurrection bodies; rather, they signify their worthiness and purity as those who have remained faithful to Christ and thus have “conquered” (3:4–5; 12:11), even as they await comprehensive vindication at the resurrection.^[30] In the next chapter, John sees a great multitude “clothed in white robes” (περιβεβλημένους στολὰς λευκάς) standing before the Lamb (7:9–10). In 7:14, the heavenly elder explains to John that those clothed in white robes “are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Thus, the saints who are “slain” like the Lamb also experience redemption by his blood and corporately share in the Lamb’s ironic yet decisive victory.^[31]

In addition to God’s initial response of comfort and heavenly vindication in 6:11, the Apocalypse also reveals God’s ultimate answer to the prayers of slain saints. In the midst of the climactic bowl judgments, an angel declares, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” (16:5–6). Then the altar speaks, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!” (16:7). It is noteworthy that this affirmation of the Almighty’s true and just judgments comes from “the altar,” where the martyrs cry out for justice and the prayers of the saints are offered as incense (6:9; 8:3). The voice in 16:7 may come from the angel presenting believers’ prayers at the altar (8:3­–4);^[32] but most likely, “the altar” is a metonymic reference to the martyrs themselves who are “under the altar” (6:9).^[33] The judgment reflects the principle of lex talionis: those who shed blood will drink blood. The Almighty “gives to people only what they have given to others, and his judgment is testimony to his justice and equity.”^[34] The victims who cried out at the altar are now the victors agreeing with God’s just judgments. Thus, the Apocalypse presents the consummate bowl judgments as the Almighty’s faithful and fitting response to the petitions of his persecuted people.

3. The Altar of Incense and Judgment (8:3–5)

The Apocalypse returns to “the prayers of the saints” in 8:3–5 in a transitional scene that concludes the opening of the scroll’s seven seals (8:1) and introduces the seven angels with seven trumpets (8:2, 6). John writes,

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints [ταῖς προσευχαῖς τῶν ἁγίων πάντων] on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints [ὁ καπνὸς τῶν θυμιαμάτων ταῖς προσευχαῖς τῶν ἁγίων], rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. (8:3–5)

When the Lamb takes the sealed scroll in ch. 5, the twenty-four elders bring incense-prayers in golden bowls. Here in ch. 8, the angel offers those prayers with incense on the altar, like a priest serving in the tabernacle (Lev 16:12). This is presumably the same heavenly altar sprinkled by the martyrs’ blood in Rev 6:9. The reference to all the saints’ prayers doubtless includes the martyrs’ appeals for justice in 6:10. The mingled prayers and incense rise before God as a dramatic depiction of believer’s petitions effectively reaching God’s throne with angelic authorization.

The direct answer to these prayers comes in 8:5, where the same priestly angel who offered the prayers in 8:3 fills his censer with fire from the altar and hurls it to the earth. The storm theophany in 8:5—peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake—recalls God’s awesome presence at Mount Sinai (Exod 19:16–19). The Sinai imagery occurs earlier in 4:5, where the lightning, rumblings, and thunder establish the divine throne as the central place where “God’s holiness and power are openly revealed.”^[35] The Apocalypse reintroduces these theophanic phenomena at the conclusion of septets of seals, trumpets, and bowls (8:5; 11:19; 16:18).^[36] Thus, we see the glorious God of thunder, who rules from his heavenly throne, execute his awesome judgments on the earth, culminating in the seven bowls of divine wrath.^[37]

The Apocalypse reinforces the connection between prayer and divine judgment in several ways. First, the initial trumpets in 8:7–8 include “fire” (πῦρ), which brings destruction on the earth and sea. This repetition of fire closely links these divine acts with “the fire from the altar” that the angel hurls to the earth as the incense and prayers ascend to God (8:4–5).

Second, when the sixth trumpet sounds, John hears “a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God” (9:13). Elsewhere in Revelation, the martyrs “under the altar” (ὑποκάτω τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου) cry out for vindication (6:9–10), the saints’ prayers are offered with incense “on the altar” (ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον, 8:3), and the angel fills his censer “with fire from the altar” (ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, 8:5). The voice in 9:13 is variously understood as belonging to God,^[38] the ministering angel (8:3–5),^[39] or simply the altar itself.^[40] Alternatively, as in 16:7, this voice from the altar may refer to the martyrs’ unified appeal for justice (6:9). Regardless of the precise identification of the voice, John has already associated the golden altar with the saints’ prayers and thus links those petitions here with the sixth trumpet. According to Robert Mounce, “John is recalling the fundamental truth that the prayers of God’s people play an active role in the eschatological drama.”^[41] Specifically, God’s righteous acts of judgment issue forth from the altar in response to his people’s prayers for justice.^[42]

Third, in 14:18, an angel with “authority over the fire” comes from the altar and announces the time to harvest grapes for the winepress of God’s wrath (v. 19; cf. 19:15; Isa 63:1–6).^[43] This may be the same priestly angel who offers the saints’ prayers and takes fire from the altar in 8:3–5, who now prepares for the “blood” to flow from the winepress of divine wrath (14:20) to avenge the “blood” of the saints (6:10; 16:6; 18:24; 19:2).

Fourth, in 15:7, “one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God.” Elsewhere in Revelation, “golden bowls” (φιάλας χρυσᾶς) appear only in 5:8, where they are filled with incense-prayers. Regardless of whether or not the golden bowls full of wrath in 15:7 are precisely the same as those in 5:8, the unique lexical repetition of “golden bowls” implies that the last septet of judgments is a further, more definitive answer to the petitions of God’s people in 5:8 and 8:3–4 (cf. 6:9–11).^[44]

Thus, the Apocalypse presents the judgment cycles of seals, trumpets, and bowls as God’s direct and definitive answer to the effective prayers of the saints.^[45] The heavenly altar under which the slain martyrs cry (6:9–10) and on which the angel presents the saints’ petitions as a fragrant offering (8:3–4) is also the place from which divine fire falls, bringing righteous retribution (8:5; 9:13) and leading to approving praise for the Almighty (16:7).

4. Come, Lord Jesus! (22:20)

The book of Revelation closes with two prayers. The final verse expresses John’s epistolary prayer-wish, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (22:21). This stylized closing prayer is typical of other NT letters and recalls the book’s only other reference to grace (χάρις) in the introductory blessing in 1:3.

In 22:20, Christ reasserts his promise, “Surely I am coming soon” (ναί, ἔρχομαι ταχύ, cf. 22:7, 12). John responds with the expectant and assenting prayer, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Ἀμήν· ἔρχου κύριε Ἰησοῦ; 22:20). Jesus’s “coming” is a major theme in the Apocalypse that is introduced in 1:7, alluding to Dan 7:13, “Behold, he is coming [ἔρχεται] with the clouds.” Most commentators interpret Christ’s “coming with the clouds” as a reference to the parousia at the end of history,^[46] but Ian Paul avers that here and elsewhere in the NT Jesus’s “coming” as the Son of Man depicts Christ’s “victorious ascent to the right hand of the Father.”^[47] In 16:15, Jesus interrupts the presentation of the sixth bowl judgment to exhort faithful readers, “Behold, I am coming like a thief!” He also declares three times in the epilogue, “I am coming soon” (22:7, 12, 20).

Revelation depicts the exalted Son of Man approaching the Ancient of Days and being crowned on the cloud, now sitting on the throne of heaven (3:21; 5:7; 14:14). Christ will also return at the end of history as the rightful sovereign to execute judgment and divine wrath on the forces of evil, establishing his everlasting kingdom (19:11–16; cf. 11:15). In fact, Revelation applies OT descriptions of Yahweh’s “coming” to Christ’s parousia.^[48] For example, Isa 40:10 asserts, “See, the Lord comes [ἔρχεται] with strength, and his arm rules with power; behold, his recompense is with him [ὁ μισθὸς αὐτοῦ μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ], and his work before him” (NETS).^[49] In Rev 22:12, Jesus declares, “See, I am coming soon [ἔρχομαι ταχύ] and my recompense is with me [ὁ μισθός μου μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ], to repay each one as his work is.”^[50] The expectation of the consummate coming of Yahweh at Christ’s parousia impels believers to faithfully endure and maintain hope amidst suffering as they join with John in declaring, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:20). Bauckham observes that apart from Paul’s Aramaic prayer Maranatha in 1 Cor 16:22, “it is only in the last few verses of Revelation … that the ‘coming’ of Jesus is explicitly the object of prayer.”^[51]

5. Conclusion

In this essay I have considered how the Apocalypse subtly yet systematically links the prayers of God’s people with the cycles of divine judgment. The book refers directly to “the prayers of the saints” three times (5:8; 8:3–4), prominently depicts the slain martyrs crying out for vindication (6:9–11), and closes with the yearning appeal, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:20). Revelation closely associates these prayers with the temple imagery of incense, golden bowls, and the altar, which feature prominently at key junctures in the septets of seals, trumpets, and bowls. The golden bowls of incense that represent the prayers of the saints (5:8) anticipate the seven golden bowls filled with divine wrath in 15:7, which the angels pour out on the earth (16:1). Revelation first refers to the heavenly altar when the fifth seal is opened and the slain martyrs under the altar cry out for divine justice (6:9–10). Immediately following the opening of the seventh seal and the introduction of the angels with seven trumpets (8:1–2), a priestly angel offers the saints’ prayers with incense on the altar following the seal judgments and then fills his censer with fire from the altar and throws it on the earth (8:3–5). Voices from the altar in 9:13 and 16:7 during the trumpet and bowl cycles reinforce the link between the saints’ petitions and God’s response of judgment.

Elsewhere the Scriptures clearly state that God hears the prayers of his people and acts in response to these prayers. Two examples will suffice. First, God delivers his people from Egypt in direct response to their cries for help. According to Exodus 2:24, “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” God then tells Moses that he has seen his people’s oppression, has heard their cry, knows their sufferings, and has now “come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians” (3:7–9). Second, in Acts 4:23–30 the early church prays for boldness amidst opposition and receives an immediate answer in v. 31: “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” In the same vein, Revelation discloses God’s eschatological response to his people’s prayers. John vividly portrays these prayers carried by heavenly beings into God’s throne room and offered with incense on the heavenly altar. These prayers play a crucial, instrumental role in the consummation of God’s purposes in judgment and salvation. Each of the book’s three major judgment cycles is linked to the prayers of the saints explicitly (6:9–11; 8:3–4) or implicitly through the imagery of the heavenly altar (8:5; 9:13; 14:18; 15:7; 16:7; cf. 6:9) and golden bowls (15:7; 16:1; cf. 5:8).

Thus, Revelation’s depiction of the prayers of the saints offers strong assurance and encouragement to God’s suffering people. As in times past, the Almighty hears and receives his people’s prayers, which ascend to his throne like sweet-smelling incense. God offers present comfort to his slain saints who cry out, “How long?,” as he grants them rest and clothes them in white robes (6:10–11). The Apocalypse also holds out further hope for God’s suffering people by showing how he responds to their appeals for justice by giving their enemies what they deserve (16:5–7) and by stressing the surety and imminence of Christ’s return (1:7; 22:7, 12, 20).

In Matthew 6:9–10, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Bauckham aptly states that the prayers in the Apocalypse “are fully eschatological—that is, they are prayers for the coming of God’s kingdom.”^[52] Revelation presents God consummating his kingdom and establishing his will through the present reign and future return of Jesus Christ (cf. 11:15–18; 12:10). After God judges his enemies in response to his people’s cries for justice, his glorious throne moves from heaven to earth as the central reality of the new Jerusalem (22:1, 3).^[53]

In the book’s concluding vision of the glorious temple-city, God’s people no longer pray for justice or salvation because all enemies have been judged and all threats have been removed. The saints will behold God’s face and worship him forever (22:3–4). When God has finally and fully answered all his people’s prayers, their earnest petitions will give way to exuberant praise. As Gary Millar observes, “All that remains is endless delight, worship and surprise at the endless magnificence of the glory of God.”^[54] This glorious hope of perfect justice, redemption, and restoration should compel God’s people to hold fast to the testimony of Jesus and to pray with John, “Amen. Come Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).